Five Things Touou Ruined
by fantaestic
Summary: For a team that focused on individual talent, Touou sure seemed to bother each other a lot.
1. The First Thing They Ruined

**A/N: **At last, Touou's story is here! After popular demand, I decided to post their story first. Next will definitely be KiriDaii's stoy. Anyway, I'm sorry if I offended anyone with the little Canadian thing down there. I meant no harm in it as it was just a stereotypical description thing. If anyone is really offended by it, I'll change it. Well, I hope you like the first chapter in this. Please do tell me what you all think! Love you guys! (Also, do you guys have any idea how hard it is to find a potrait picture of Touou together. Like damn why is so difficult. This would explain why the cover photo is on it's side. I just gave up and found a decent landscape photo and flipped it, lol.)

_Sakurai decided to stop being so damn Canadian. It ended with him becoming even more Canadian than moose and maple syrup._

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**i. Sakurai's apologetic nature**

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Sakurai was an odd person. He apologized for everything, even for things that he had no control over like Aomine's constant skipping of practice. It never mattered how many times he said sorry because it was _never his fault_. But he wouldn't have it. In his mind _everything_ was his fault.

Even Imayoshi, who delighted in outsmarting and manipulating others, found it annoying and and slightly unnerving when the first year would start his endless stream of _I'm sorry_'s.

Every time he bumped into someone or every time he made a three pointer against his opponent, his teammates would know to start plugging their ears because the apologies would soon begin. It had become so unbearable that Wakamatsu started to wear earplugs while practicing sometimes. Imayoshi, who didn't tolerate any distractions while on the court, was tempted to ask the second year to get him a pair of his own.

It was like an unspoken rule or something that every time Sakurai did _anything_ at all, he would without a doubt be sorry for it.

Oh? He didn't bring extra food? "I'm sorry!"

He forgot to pickup the basketballs even though it was actually Aomine's day to do so? "I'm sorry!"

He was born? "I'm sorry!"

People, namely Aomine, started to take advantage of Sakurai's overly apologetic nature. Aomine would let Sakurai take the blame for everything. If Sakurai took the responsibility then he wouldn't be punished for it, and he knew that Imayoshi wouldn't be so cruel as to punish Sakurai when they all knew it wasn't his doing. It got so bad that Touou's coach had to step in and tell Aomine to stop using Sakurai for his own benefit.

But no longer would Sakurai Ryou be that pushover. No longer would he be the apologetic mushroom. No longer would he keep saying sorry.

At least, that's what he told himself.

So when Sakurai arrived ten minutes late to the next practice, his teammates had already plugged their ears in anticipation of the onslaught of apologies that were sure to come.

But they never did.

He walked up to Imayoshi and apologized once and _only _once, something that shocked the others. He did bow to his teammates, but other than that, there wasn't a single word even resembling some sort of apology that had come out of his mouth. Sakurai did look slightly troubled as he did that, but everyone had just brushed it off as him being scared of Imayoshi. They didn't care about why he was looking more nervous than normal. They only cared as to why the hell Sakurai hadn't immediately started to apologize the moment he walked into the gym.

Although everyone did have to admit that it was refreshing not to be bombarded with apologies. Actually, maybe Sakurai not apologizing was a good sign that he was growing out of that annoying phase. No one even cared anymore that their precious mushroom was no longer apologetic. If he didn't want to be an irritating nuisance anymore, then good for him!

Except it wasn't good for him, or anyone for that matter. It had been a few days since the first incident and Sakurai was apologizing less and less. The Touou team started to get worried.

While Sakurai was no longer shouting out sorry for everything, he did seem more nervous and anxious. He jumped every time someone tried to talk to him and would immediately make an excuse to leave.

Not to mention the fact that without Sakurai's constant apologies, the atmosphere within the Touou team became weird. Too often was it eerily quiet during practice. Usually, the team would use Sakurai's apologies as an excuse to say something, to tell him to stop or to yell at Aomine as it was usually his fault. After that the conversations between each member would flow naturally. But without something to jump start their conversations, Touou Gakuen no longer knew what to say to each other.

It was strange how one little thing messed up Touou's flow so much. It had pretty much become a given that Sakurai would always be saying sorry and that his teammates would always be telling him to stop. But now that Sakurai actually _did_ stop, the Touou members hadn't a clue what to do.

"I think we broke Sakurai," Wakamatsu said after Sakurai had not only bumped into him, but he hadn't even apologized. Not even once! "Something's seriously wrong." He looked after the first year shooting guard who had already scurried away.

"For once he says something smart," Aomine commented. He lazily stood up from the bench he was resting on, all the while ignoring Wakamatsu's question of what the hell that was supposed to mean. "I can't even push him around anymore!"

Momoi looked at Aomine with an irritated look. "Dai-chan, you need to stop taking advantage of Sakurai!"

Aomine rolled his eyes and disregarded what his best friend said. Instead he turned to Imayoshi and asked him what he was going to do about the fact that their apologetic shooting guard was no longer apologetic.

Imayoshi looked calculating for a minute and the others wondered what in the world it was he was thinking about now. His glasses glinted dangerously in the light for a few more seconds or so before he just called Sakurai over with a wave of his hand.

Sakurai looked like he was walking to his execution. His head was down and he looked ready to mess his pants. However, he didn't say a word. It was strange to see Sakurai so quiet after Imayoshi called for him. Usually the first year would be screaming apologies the moment Imayoshi even as much so as started to utter his name.

By the time Sakurai made it over to them, Susa had also invited himself into the impromptu meeting. His presence completed the group of first stringers.

"Sakurai," Imayoshi started to say, "is something wrong?"

Sakurai fervently shook his head. If the Touou players had been paying attention to him instead of looking at each other for answers, they would've noticed that he looked ready to explode.

"Are you sure? You can tell us if something was the matter, right?" Imayoshi tried to smile reassuringly, but it was more like he just bared his teeth. The others physically recoiled at the sight. They were sure their captain meant well, but that image was something that was going to haunt _them_ forever, never mind Sakurai.

Sakurai shook his head again. Why couldn't they just leave him alone? They had always told him that he needed to stop apologizing for such pointless things, and here he was _not_ apologizing for pointless things. So why weren't they happy yet? Did he do something wrong? Was he going to get punished? Oh god, please don't let Imayoshi make him wash the uniforms like he made Wakamatsu do last time. Whatever he did, he was _so, so-_

"I'm sorry!" Sakurai shouted, interrupting Momoi mid sentence as she was asking him if the team had done something to make him upset. She stopped and looked at him in shock, as did the others. Tears welled up in his eyes as he continued to bow to his stunned teammates. The interrogation was straw that broke the camel's back. As the waterworks inside of Sakurai were turned on, his apologies came tumbling out one by one. "I'm sorry for coming late to practice! I'm sorry for bumping into Wakamatsu-senpai! I'm sorry for being such a pest to the team! I'm sorry for not saying sorry!"

Sakurai continued like this, apologizing for everything he hadn't apologized for in the past few days. The rest of the team tried to calm him down and reassure him that it really was okay; they weren't mad, they were just worried. But Sakurai was inconsolable. He was just blubbering incoherently as he sobbed onto the floor. He was a mess and they knew it was their faults.

But hey, it looked like the Touou basketball players hadn't broken Sakurai after all.

After Sakurai composed himself, he tried to apologize one final time for that display of weakness, but Imayoshi was quick to stop him lest they have a repeat of Sakurai's meltdown. With a wary smile (one that didn't look terrifying), he told the younger player, "It's okay. You can apologize all you want,or not, it's okay."

Sakurai returned to normal after that, or as normal as someone who always seemed to be sorry for being born could be.


	2. The Second Thing They Ruined

**A/N: **You all can hate me and throw pitchforks at me and things because I'm an awful person. I'd do it too, tbh. I won't bore you with the details, but school has been kicking my ass, so yeah. This chapter took forever to write, plus I've been neglecting the story a little (aka reading manga and watching anime), but now I'm back full force! So expect (sort of) quicker updates. Anyway, THANKS SO MUCH to everyone who's faved and followed and reviewed. You're all the best! Hopefully this chapter was up to your expectations and it's not too disappointing. But thank you again for being such lovely people!

2/23 edit: Thank you so much to ResyaAfhirsa00018 for telling me about the mistake I made in the chapter! I've fixed it and hopefully all is good now.

_Shitty eyes, shitty personality._

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**ii. Imayoshi's glasses**

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Lately, Imayoshi had been having eye problems. They were irritated and red all the time, and no matter how much allergy medicine he took or how many eye drops he used, he felt like scratching his eyes out all the time. It was most likely just the weather and it would probably stop in a week or two, but that didn't mean it didn't bother him any less.

How was he supposed to play properly when his eyes kept watering every few seconds?

It was during practice when his eyes started to cause him trouble once again. He turned around and headed towards the bench where Momoi and the coach sat in order to get some eye drops to relieve him of the stupid irritation. He didn't want to risk taking his glasses off in front of his team and have someone make another oh-so-funny comment about whether he was high or not because of his red eyes.

With a long sigh, Imayoshi sat down and took his glasses off, rubbing his temples as he did so. "Can you grab my eye drops for me, Momoi?" he asked, looking at the manager with a strained eye smile, the one that was always on his face whether he was smiling or not.

Momoi nodded and quickly dug the bottle out of his bag. Handing it off to him, she asked him if it was allergies that was causing his eyes to bother him.

Imayoshi just nodded and set his glasses down beside him. Unscrewing the cap off the bottle, he tilted his head back and squeezed the almost empty bottle. Somehow he managed to pinch out four drops, two for each eye. He blinked and felt his eyes burn slightly before he leaned forward. His eyes widened a bit at what he saw.

Wakamatsu was storming over to the bench, and before Imayoshi could even react, he sat his big fat ass down right next to the Touou Captain. Wakamatsu hadn't seemed to notice that Imayoshi was glaring at him, or rather, at the spot where he had just sat down. Instead, he just angrily pointed towards the court and shouted, "Can't you do something about Aomine?! He keeps stealing the ball from me!" Wakamatsu's nostrils flared up and his eyes were lit up with annoyance. "I'm on his team, for god's sake!"

Imayoshi ignored everything the other said. "Get up," he ordered. He said this slowly, slowly but dangerously. His eyes still hadn't moved from the spot Wakamatsu had planted his butt down on.

"What?" Wakamatsu asked. But he knew that look. He was the recipient of it many times before, after all. It was the same look he gave the third stringers every time they messed something up. So, he listened to his captain and stood up, only to realize what he had done about a second too late. "Oh, shit..."

The broken remnants of Imayoshi's glasses lay on the bench. Wakamatsu looked down at what he had done in horror, and then looked back at his captain with the same horrified expression. Imayoshi was giving him such a startlingly calm look that Wakamatsu almost wasn't sure whether Imayoshi was angry or not.

Almost, that is. Because it was Imayoshi, after all, and he was always angry.

That serene and composed glance was a trademark of one Imayoshi Shoichi. It was the look he gave people who disobeyed him or did something he was displeased with. It was the look he often gave Wakamatsu, actually. When normal people would start shouting, Imayoshi would just look, and that in itself was enough to make the receiver of it scared for their life.

And then he'd open his mouth and by that time, most people would have all the color drained from their face as they trembled in their boots. Imayoshi wasn't a screamer or a yeller, no, he was worse than that. He would tell you how badly you fucked up in such an overly polite and quiet way that you'd be pissing yourself before he could even finish his sentence.

Wakamatsu briefly wondered if he had enough time to call his mom and tell her he loved her before Imayoshi got to him.

"Senpai, you should be careful of where you sit," Momoi scolded, not noticing the dark aura that surrounded Imayoshi and that was quickly enveloping Wakamatsu too. "Do you want me to clean this up for you?" she asked, and it was when she looked up after that that she noticed what she had foolishly put herself in between. Hurriedly, she gave Wakamatsu an apologetic look and quickly excused herself. She then walked away from the two, probably to tell the others to hurry up and bid their senpai goodbye forever.

Wakamatsu stayed uncharacteristically silent. He knew that any noise he made would only add onto his punishment. He quickly glanced around, trying to spot someone nice enough to help him out of the pinch he had gotten himself stuck in. But everyone he made eye contact with pretended they hadn't seen him and looked away. Except for Aomine, who only laughed and pointed at him.

He looked back at his captain, who was still staring at him with those squinty eyes of his. With those cold, calculating eyes that never seemed to see the light of day. Even so, Imayoshi's glare was the worst.

"First," Imayoshi said slowly, breaking the silence, "clean this up. You'll be paying for the replacement." Wakamatsu nodded. He had fully expected that and it wasn't a big deal at all. What came after that was what he was worried about.

Imayoshi gave him that familiar mocking smile of his and Wakamatsu's blood ran cold. "It's been a few weeks since we've cleaned our practice jerseys. Please make sure they're all clean by Monday," he ordered.

Wakamatsu couldn't help but think that that was a rather lame and tame punishment. While the practice jerseys were disgusting, cleaning them wasn't going to be much of a problem. Surely that wasn't all?

Imayoshi smiled once again. "You underestimated me, of course that's not all," he said, and Wakamatsu froze. Had his captain really just read his mind? "For the next two weeks, you will be doing everything Aomine says without complaint. Every time you come to me with another issue about Aomine, I'll be adding a week onto the punishment." Imayoshi grinned, baring his teeth and Wakamatsu felt like he was going to faint.

Imayoshi was a sadistic bastard, but Wakamatsu never knew he could go that far. That was, by far, the worst punishment Wakamatsu had ever received. He'd rather die than follow Aomine around like a little puppy and heeding to his every command.

"Well, would you really rather die, though?" Imayoshi asked, seemingly reading his mind once again. Wakamatsu quickly shook his head no and Imayoshi smirked. "Good." And he walked away, leaving Touou's center to stand there shaking in his basketball shoes.

That next day, Imayoshi came to school with a big bruise on his forehead and an even bigger scowl on his face.

For the first time in a long time, Imayoshi couldn't see a single thing. He had no extra pair of glasses and the contacts he had in case of emergencies would only make his allergy symptoms worse.

He was as blind as a bat and he hated it.

That morning as he was leaving his dorm room, he had ran into the door frame because he couldn't see clearly. That was how he had gotten that huge bump on his forehead in the first place. Susa, who had walked out of his neighboring room the same time Imayoshi did, had seen him and laughed his ass off, asking if Imayoshi was sure he wanted to go to attend class that day. Imayoshi was starting to think that maybe he should've listened to Susa after all.

"What happened to you?" Aomine asked during practice that afternoon. Aomine's and Imayoshi's classes were on opposite ends of the school, and they don't see each other much, if at all, during the school day. So Aomine was the last one to see the captain in all of his blind glory. "Your face looks scarier than usual."

Imayoshi just ignored him like always. But Aomine was right. Without his glasses, he couldn't see, so he was straining his eyes just to see something five feet in front of him. This made his eyes seem even smaller than they usually more. Which translated into Imayoshi looking scarier than he normally did.

Wakamatsu chose that time to walk by and Imayoshi had only barely even glanced at him before he ran away, nearly pissing himself as he did so.

That was the day that Touou decided that an Imayoshi in glasses was a much easier sight on their eyes than an Imayoshi without, something they had never thought could've been possible.

Wakamatsu was harassed to please hurry and replace the captain's glasses.

Imayoshi couldn't understand why everyone kept avoiding him. All he needed was for someone to point him in the direction of the locker room and maybe help him open up his locker and he'd be set, really. But he couldn't even ask for that because as soon as he tried to, his teammates would run away.

With an annoyed sigh, he just attempted to make his way to the room himself. However, he didn't get very far because he ended up tripping over a basketball and landing flat on his face.

His teammates tried to hold in their laughter, but seeing their usually composed captain so uncoordinated was hilarious and they all bust out laughing. He glared at them and they quickly shut up, but the damage was already done. Imayoshi's eyesight may be shitty, but his personality was even shittier and so he said, "Everyone go run until I finish changing!"

He took especially long to change that day. He told himself that it was because he wanted his team to suffer a little longer, but he and everyone else knew that it was because he could barely even reach his locker, nonetheless open it.

Wakamatsu gave Imayoshi his replacement glasses a week later. All of Touou had to breathe a sigh of relief when they saw him wearing his glasses once again. But they could only celebrate for a second, because the first thing Imayoshi did after he regained his eyesight was order a doubling of their training menu.

"My eyesight was bad, so I have no idea if you all actually trained properly or not," he explained, and then he grinned and everyone shuddered.

Better eyesight, still shitty personality.


	3. The Third Thing They Ruined

**A/N: **Helllooo! The third chapter is finally here~ This time featuring Wakamatsu, poor baby. Ahaha, anywhoo, I'm wondering if I should start a tumblr to just post little drabbles I have no where else to put lol. My mind keeps starting fics and I can never finish them and they end up being little drabbles and idk what to do anymore. But yeah, thanks for reading everyone! I hope you all enjoy it!

_Sometimes, the ace and the captain liked to work together to make his life miserable._

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**iii. Wakamatsu's voice**

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Wakamatsu liked to yell, everyone knew that. His strong personality and hot temper accounted for that fact. It wasn't unusual for the Touou center to scream and shout until his voice became hoarse, especially during games and practices. There wasn't a single day that went by without Wakamatsu's temper flaring up once again due to some first year's (_Aomine's_) negligence and there wasn't a single day that Wakamatsu didn't go home with a sore throat.

The school nurse knew him by name now, as he often visited during the day to get a small cup of tea or other quick cure to relieve his burning throat. She'd scold him and tell him to please try to speak in a quieter tone, but he'd tell her that it was impossible to do so with teammates like his.

And that was true. He just couldn't help himself when it came to basketball. While the first years (_Aomine_) were pretty troublesome and were always worthy of a good yelling, basketball just brought out the best of him. And apparently, the best of him included his yelling. But mostly it was Aomine.

But sometimes, Wakamatsu had an inkling, a little fleeting thought, that maybe, _just maybe_, his team sent Aomine to bother him on purpose.

Every so often he'd see Imayoshi whisper something into the annoying ace's ear and then not even a few seconds later Aomine would be sauntering Wakamatsu's way with that stupid smirk on his face. Wakamatsu was starting to get suspicious, seeing as how this seemed to happen more and more often. And every time that happened, by the end of the day his throat seemed to burn worse than it did the day before.

That day was no different.

Twenty minutes into practice, right after Wakamatsu finished yelling at some poor freshman who had thrown a lousy pass, Aomine walked up to him (he was, surprisingly, at practice that day) with that stupid smirk on his face and mischievous glint in his eyes. "Yo, Wakamatsu," he called, leaving off the honorific.

Wakamatsu scowled at the impolite power forward. No matter how many times he'd yelled at Aomine for it, the spoiled little shit never added the senpai to his name. "Stupid brat, how many times have I told you that you need to call me senpai?!" Wakamatsu's eyebrows were knitted together and his teeth were bared, an indicator that his temper was heating up once again.

"You can keep telling me," Aomine said lazily. "But I'm still not calling you senpai." He immediately backed up, successfully outsmarting Wakamatsu as the center made a move to punch the other. Aomine childishly stuck his tongue out as he turned around and walked away with his hands on the back of his head. "Still too slow," he called back behind him.

It took all Wakamatsu had (and Sakurai doing his best to physically restrain him) to not run up and strangle Aomine right then and there.

Ten minutes later, another idiotic freshman missed a layup and Wakamatsu lost it. "How can you miss a layup? It's one of the most basic of drills!" He went on and on, and while he did so he found it odd that no one came to stop him. Imayoshi would usually step in and tell him to calm down after a minute or so, claiming that he'd scare his teammates right off the team if he didn't stop, but for some reason Imayoshi just stood there with an unreadable look on his face.

Wakamatsu just shrugged it off.

As soon as practice ended he started to feel the effects of his constant shouting. He decided to visit the school nurse even though he knew that he'd surely be lectured for not taking care of himself.

When he walked into the health office, the nurse took one look at him and sighed. There was already an instant tea packet sitting on top of her desk, as if she knew he'd be coming by to claim one. She gave him two, one for later, she said, and started to fill out a report for his visit as he put the tea in the microwave

"How'd you know I was coming?" he asked. The microwave beeped and he carefully pulled out the steaming hot cup of tea. One sip and his throat was already starting to feel much better.

The rather young school nurse spun around in her chair and raised an eyebrow at him, claiming, "I'd heard you screaming from the gym all the way here." And though it was technically impossible seeing as how the gym was on the other side of school grounds, Wakamatsu actually couldn't doubt the fact. "Who was the poor boy you were yelling at this time?" she asked, already turned around as she continue filling out the form. She let out a long and tired breath as she wrote _'Wakamatsu Kousuke' _on the correct line. She really should have a stamp made or something for the amount of times she had to write his name during the week.

Wakamatsu took another sip of tea before he answered. "Aomine was being a disrespectful brat and the other first years don't know how to play basketball," he explained bluntly.

The nurse just nodded, no longer surprised anymore at his rather harsh response. She spun around in the chair again and held out a pen for him. "You know the drill," she said, passing him the form for him to sign. As he did so she looked at him and sighed in exasperation. "As a nurse, I have to advise you to not use your voice so much and to not yell, but you've heard my lecture so many times that I'm sure you could recite it in your sleep by now."

Wakamatsu gave her an amused grin as he handed the form back for her to file. He was sure that he had already accumulated more than a hundred health reports in his school file, and the school year was only half way through.

He stood up and playfully saluted her as he walked out of the room. "See you tomorrow! Thanks for the tea!"

The nurse could only give him a worn out smile in return.

The next day at practice, it happened again. Wakamatsu had turned to the side to wipe his sweat for a split second when he saw his captain telling Aomine something again. They both looked to him but when they noticed he was looking back, they quickly turned their heads away.

With an eyebrow warily raised, Wakamatsu stood up straight and waited for Aomine to inevitably stroll over to him.

As if on cue, the power forward walked over to the already pissed off Wakamatsu, a suspicious overly joyful look on his face. It looked out of place and contrasted with his usually menacing features. The second year frowned.

"Ah, Wakamatsu!" Aomine greeted, slinging an arm around the center's shoulders. Once again there was no honorifics and Wakamatsu's scowl only deepened. "Captain told me to tell you to go outside and bring in the basketballs left over from the outside shooting practice earlier."

"What?" Wakamatsu exclaimed, shrugging Aomine's hands off of him. Had he really heard the freshman correctly? "But it's raining!" Loud, booming thunder sounded just as he said that and he pointed to the ceiling, proving his point. "See?!"

Aomine just shrugged, not caring at all about Wakamatsu's well being. "Captain's orders," he said simply. "And I wouldn't want to piss him off today." Wakamatsu snuck a glance over to Imayoshi and he shuddered when he noticed the dark aura surrounding the Touou captain.

Wakamatsu groaned, but he knew he had to do it. For the first time since their conversation started, he looked down, noticing that Aomine was swinging an umbrella with his left hand. Wakamatsu made a grab for it, only for Aomine to pull away. "Give me the umbrella, brat!" Wakamatsu sneered.

Aomine stuck his tongue out. "Nope, this is mine."

"Then why are you carrying it if you're not giving it to me?!"

"'Cause I'm going home." And with that, Aomine walked away, leaving Wakamatsu umbrella-less and angrier than he had been at the beginning of their conversation.

Fifteen minutes later and Wakamatsu was finally done picking up the basketballs outside. It wasn't an easy task. It was pouring and dark out and the balls seemed to be scattered everywhere. Not to mention he dropped the bag and they all rolled out five minutes into it.

He slammed the gym doors open, gaining everyone's attention. With the mesh bag full of basketballs slung over his shoulder, he slipped and slid his way over to the confused and slightly (but not really) concerned Touou captain and his fellow third year.

"Here," he growled, handing the sopping wet basketballs off to the other. Imayoshi accepted it without a word, though he didn't know the reason for it.

Wakamatsu unzipped his hoodie and pulled it off, but it was no use. The rain had already seeped through his jacket and his entire body was dripping wet.

"You're going to clean that up, right?" Susa asked, pointing behind Wakamatsu at the trail of puddles he had left.

Wakamatsu scowled at him and ignored his question, turning to Imayoshi instead. "Here, I got you your damn basketballs."

"What for?"

"Huh?" Wakamatsu said dumbly. His mouth dropped open a bit and his eyes narrowed. "What do you mean 'what for'?" he yelled, but his voice cracked and his throat clenched. He took a short, painful gulp to clear his throat before shouting, "Aomine told me you wanted me to get all the basketballs outside and bring them in!"

Imayoshi opened his mouth, as if to deny the fact, but he suddenly remembered. "Ahh, I know what you're talking about now," he mumbled, nodding to himself.

Then he turned to address Wakamatsu, who was still standing there in confusion, literally dripping water with every passing second. "I actually just told him to go do something to bother you and get your blood boiling. I never would've thought he'd go that far. I'm sorry about that." An all too gleeful smile graced his lips and he didn't look very sorry. "But thanks for picking up the basketballs out there. I was going to make the first years do it once the rain stopped, but since you already did it, there's no need for them to bother with it now." With a hard pat on the back and another sarcastic _thank you_, Imayoshi walked away, leaving Wakamatsu standing there wet, hoarse, and fuming that his little suspicion about the other two conspiring with each other came true.

The nurse's eyes nearly popped out of her head when Wakamatsu stumbled into her office again after practice. The tea bag she had already set out was forgotten as he staggered to the small cot in the corner of the room and collapsed onto it, whining incoherently about how he was going to kill everyone. His voice was barely audible though and it sounded worse than it ever had before.

"Well," she sighed, grabbing a few towels from the closet to dry him off (the ten minutes he had at practice did nothing to help his current state of wetness). "At least I get to write something other than just 'has sore throat' on the report today."


	4. The Fourth Thing They Ruined

**A/N: **Yoooooo, I'm back. I know it's been a long time (nearly three weeks!) and I'm so so sorry. I lost inspiration for a while, but I finally found it, though I seem to only ever get inspiration in like the dead of night when I'm supposed to be sleeping... But anyway, I hope this long overdue chapter is enough for my beautiful readers. Thank you for reading and reviewing and being amazing people in general! Hopefully this is a good enough chapter. Thanks for reading!

_The one time Aomine had a good reason to skip practice was also the one time Wakamatsu had had enough._

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**iv. Aomine's absent streak**

* * *

During roll call, it wasn't unusual for Aomine's name to be called out only to be followed by a long silence. Someone, usually Momoi (sometimes Sakurai if he wasn't too busy apologizing to someone for something), would then say three words that everyone at Touou Academy was used to hearing by now: "Aomine is absent."

The members of the Touou basktball club stopped expecting Aomine to show up a long time ago. So much so that Wakamatsu rarely ever mentioned anything about it anymore. He'd just mumble and grumble about it every so often.

Just how like they were used to Wakamatsu flying off the handle about any little issue or to Sakurai apologizing for something, they were now used to Aomine never showing up for anything.

The Touou team could be at times compared to a very dysfunctional family.

Where Aomine went, that was always the question. Sometimes he'd just be napping on the roof, or maybe he'd even be skipping school entirely and just stay home or go to the arcade near his house that he was always so fond of. Momoi stopped calling him and urging him to attend school ages ago, and would only ever remind him to come if she knew there was something important going on that day (though she still sent him a text every morning).

One day, however, Wakamatsu had enough.

As soon as Sakurai finished bowing and apologizing for not keeping a close enough eye on Aomine, it was expected that Wakamatsu would gruffly mutter something about it, but this time, he completely lost it.

"Why don't you ever _do_ something about this?" he screamed at the already pissed off Imayoshi. "That brat is always missing practice and skipping school, why doesn't he ever get punished?!" Imayoshi didn't reply, and instead just continued to dribble the basketball in his hands. Wakamatsu took that as a sign to continue, though it really wasn't. "He shouldn't be let off just because he's the 'ace' of our team!" Wakamatsu looked at Susa, as if expecting the older boy to agree with him. "I'm right, aren't I?"

Susa just rolled his eyes. "Don't drag me into this. I don't care what Aomine does as long as we keep winning."

Wakamatsu groaned, annoyance seeping through his entire body. Why did no one else understand how annoying it was to constantly see some idiot first year get special treatment all the time? Just because he was good at basketball and maybe good looking doesn't mean he should be treated better than anyone else. In fact, if anyone were to get special treatment it should be _him_ considering he's the senpai and he's more hardworking and-

"If I let you go find him will you stop talking?" Imayoshi asked. The pissed off aura surrounding the Touou captain seemed to have grown larger.

Wakamatsu's mouth reflexively clamped closed. Had he been talking out loud?

"Yeah, you know you have a bad habit of doing that," Susa said, answering the question he hadn't realized he actually asked. "I'll be sure to let the idiot first year know you think he's 'maybe good looking'."

The Touou center started to walk away, humiliated and on the brink of just giving up ever getting fair treatment entirely, until he realized what his captain had asked him a few seconds earlier. "Wait, really?"

Imayoshi stopped dribbling and looked at Wakamatsu. He was clearly annoyed, but knowing Imayoshi, he was doing all he could to contain it. "Sure. If it'll get you to stop talking about it then be my guest."

Wakamatsu was already out the gym before Imayoshi could even finish his sentence.

Momoi walked in the exact moment that Wakamatsu ran out. In fact, he nearly pushed her over as he was so excited about finally being able to hunt the first year brat down.

She looked behind her curiously as she walked up to Imayoshi, a rather large stack of papers in her small hands. "Here's the data on our opponents next week," she said, handing them off to the captain. "What was that all about?" she then asked, referring to Wakamatsu's frantic exit.

"I let him go find Aomine and he got really excited," Imayoshi offhandedly replied as he flipped through the papers. "Hey, do you know anything else about – what's wrong?" He stopped when he noticed the younger girl's eyes widening drastically.

"Oh no, Dai-chan is going to kill me! I forgot to tell everyone that he has a reason to skip practice today. He's going to meet his favorite model!" She had lapsed back into calling her childhood best friend by his given name, though never to his face.

"Why would he need to meet Kise?" Susa asked. A slight teasing grin could be seen on his usually stoic face.

Momoi giggled but shook her head. "No, no, his favorite gravure model, I think is what he said. If Wakamatsu-senpai finds him and takes him back before he can meet her he's going to hate me!"

"It's alright," Imayoshi said with a shrug. He didn't seem all that bothered, in fact, he looked rather amused. "Maybe it'll teach him to not miss practice for such trivial purposes so often."

Momoi pouted. "But I can't have him hating me. He won't talk to me until he gets over it. And he holds grudges for a long time, doesn't he Sakurai-kun?"

Sakurai, who had been cowering in the corner innocently tying his shoelaces, jumped at the sound of his own name. He immediately apologized, but then nodded, attesting to Momoi's claim.

Imayoshi wasn't all that worried. "I'm sure you'd be better off without him, anyway."

"But Senpai, I promised his mother I'd take care of him!"

"Well if you promised his mother to keep him out of trouble you're not doing a very good job of it." Susa stated. There must've been something put in his drink earlier or something, Susa seemed more talkative and playful than usual.

"Senpai!" Momoi cried, giving him a look as if he was horrible for saying that. "It's not my fault! Dai-chan is just so hard to take care of."

She then started to list off all the things Aomine Daiki needed to get on with his day. Imayoshi, Susa, and Sakurai stood there listening in disbelief as the list continued to get longer and longer.

(Shoes and girls were a common theme in Aomine's daily necessities.)

"And Dai-chan is the type of person who won't come to school if he doesn't feel like it. He's that bad!" Momoi finished with a dramatic wave of her hands.

Susa chuckled as he ruffled Momoi's pink hair, trying to calm her down after getting her so worked up. "We know. You're a good person for keeping Aomine in check."

She blew her hair out of her face. "But I guess you're right. Wakamatsu-senpai doesn't know where he is so it'll be pretty hard to find him."

Momoi's phone dinged at that exact moment. She blanched as she read the contents of the message she received and immediately ran out of the gym, the other three not far behind her.

"Senpai!" Momoi gasped. The sight in front of her was pretty funny, but she couldn't bring herself to laugh.

Wakamatsu had Aomine in a chokehold, and Aomine was kicking and screaming as he fought to get out of it. Though Aomine was the stronger one of the two, it seemed as if Wakamatsu had caught him off guard and rendered his strength useless.

"Let me go!" Aomine shouted. He kicked his leg up and tried to send his foot to Wakamatsu's face, but his limited flexibility didn't allow for it and Wakamatsu just tightened his hold on him. "I was at the front of the line! How could you drag me out when she was _right_ there!"

"Because we have practice, you brat!" Wakamatsu continued to drag the screaming and kicking first year to the shocked group.

Aomine's eyes lit up in anger. "Practice is the least of my worries!"

"Oh no..." Momoi muttered, putting her head into her hands.

Susa could no longer hold in his laughter and was almost on the floor at this point. Imayoshi just adjusted his glasses, though the smirk on his face didn't go by unnoticed. Sakurai had already run back inside to get a few other members to come out and break up the arguing couple as it was evident that neither Momoi, Imayoshi, nor Susa was going to do so.

"You've already missed four days of practice in a row. It's about time you came to practice with us!" Wakamatsu said. He somehow managed to drag Aomine all the way to the entrance of the gym where everyone was gathered. Without any gentleness at all, the Touou center dropped his kouhai onto the ground like he would a sack of potatoes.

Aomine growled as he hit the ground with a thud. "Then what's the problem with me missing one more day!"

He couldn't believe that Wakamatsu had the nerve to just run up and _grab _him in front of all those people. Especially when he was the second person in line! He was beyond mortified, not to mention what a lost opportunity it all was. _Horikita Mai, please wait for me!_

Seeing as how he knew he wasn't going to get anything else out of Wakamatsu's idiotic tendencies, he stood up with a huff and brushed himself off. "You owe me, Satsuki," he said, knowing it was her who had forgotten to mention anything about his excused absence. She could only squeak in reply. Aomine then started to walk towards the gate of the school, hands in his pockets and without even so much as a greeting to his other senpais.

"Where are you going?!" Wakamatsu shouted after him. His eyes widened angrily and he was waving his arms around like a madman. "We still have practice!" After all that work to jump at Aomine when he wasn't paying attention and using up all of his energy to drag the brat back to school, _this_ was what was going to come from all of it?

"I'm going home," was the short reply. It would be too late to go back to the fan meet now. "Don't come after me!"

No one really expected anything more from him.


End file.
